I have just got back from a fantastic trip to Canada to see my family and relax after finishing my GCSEs. I thought I would share some of the things I got up to.
We flew to Canada the day after the Brexit vote, so the day we left, we found out that David Cameron was resigning. We flew out from London Gatwick and landed in Calgary airport about 13 ½ hours later after some delays meaning we had to stay on the ground (there was lightening in Calgary). Eventually, we arrived in Grande Prairie at about midnight and we had a lovely surprise in the airport – the whole family was there to meet us!
On our first day we went and visited my cousins at their works and then we had a big family dinner, it was nice to spend some time and see everyone when we hadn’t just gotten off the plane and were ridiculously tired.
The next day we went down to Debolt to the Cranberry Lakes Rodeo which my cousin Paige’s boyfriend Cody was competing in. He was competing in the novice bareback broncs and it was his first time this year after breaking his elbow on a ride last year. His uncle was also competing in saddle broncs for the first time in 20 years. The rodeo was great. We have been to loads before but it is so much more intense when you know someone in it! Cody did great (as he had a crazy horse) but didn’t manage to make the 8 seconds as he double grabbed before the time was up. That being said he did end up on the horse for almost half a minute but eventually face planted in the dirt (ouch!). The next weekend he competed again and won, he came away with a bunch of prize money, a snazzy belt buckle and a lot of adrenalin.
Later in the holiday I went to the local western wear store called Keddies. I was determined this year to come away with a lasso to catch the goats with so I went into Keddies on a mission… I found a ‚goat rope‘ that is like a smaller lasso that I guess you can use for catching them or tieing them up like they do in the steer wrestling, but I’m no cowboy so I think I’ll stick to the catching. I also picked up two sheep halters which I am planning to use to walk the goats and to restrain them while trimming their hooves.
Another day we took some of my Grandpas guns out to have a go at target practice. I was shooting a semi-automatic and a 30. 06 so if you understand rifle calibers you might have more of an idea of what that means than I do.
We spent almost a week at our family lake lot at Shaws Point on Lesser Slave Lake which they have had for close to 20 years now I think. I used to love going there in the summer and it was no different this year. This year I took on the golf cart driver role in an attempt to prepare myself for starting driving lessons this year. We were there for Canada day so got to see the Canada day parade and the fireworks. We had some great laughs and entertainment with campfire music and card games.
We did a bit of fishing at the lake and I even managed to catch a few… I caught one jack fish (sorry Grandpa) and a few walleyes which were what we were aiming for but released them all as they were on the small side. Somehow I still manage to get someone to put the minnow on my hook for me and take my fish off of my hook!
We spent the last few days of our holiday in Edmonton visiting more family, which was fun, and we had a party for my Great Grandma who was turning 92!
I had a great trip and I miss all my family already!
Here are some photos of me standing next to ridiculously big trucks that belong to some of my family, just because… #albertaliving
